Blog Entries

Getting therapy and counselling for anxiety or depression doesn’t always involve having to visit an office or location somewhere to talk to a complete stranger face-to-face. An exciting area of development is that psychological therapy can now be provided online. It is possible to receive therapy for a range of problems, such as stress, anxiety and depression, in the comfort of your own home.

We all know that getting enough sleep is important but unfortunately, more than a third of us get less than six hours sleep each night. All of the recent research suggests that this may be putting our physical health at risk. Four lifestyle factors that are worth knowing about and giving a try if you want more sleep.

Has 2016 flown by for you? Is that because you were having fun, or is it because you are getting older? Interestingly, psychological research suggests that we all experience the passing of time differently, and that doing lots of new things may be the key to subjectively slowing time down.

New research suggests that people having a positive perspective on their future have a lower risk of death and major illness compared to people who have a more pessimistic outlook. A major study, published last week, followed the health of 70,000 older women over a six year period. Their average age was about seventy years old.

These days there are so many books on time management and improving productivity you could spend a lifetime exploring them. And this would not be a good use of time! So, I prefer the simplicity of a one-hundred year old method that was developed in 1918 by a productivity guru of the time called Ivy Lee.

Many of life’s difficulties stem from an inability to accept things as they are. Sometimes this is because we experience a big gap between how we want things to be and how they actually are. Modern society doesn’t help with this – it creates expectations about what we should own or possess, or how we should look, or how we should be living our lives.

Would you describe yourself as left wing or right wing? According to recent research the way your brain responds to images of disgust can predict your political leanings with a phenomenal degree of accuracy

Many dog-owners were moved by Walnut the Whippet’s last journey across Porth Beach in Newquay. Walnut’s owner, Mark Woods, was accompanied by hundreds of well-wishers as he carried his special pet along the beach, before the frail and elderly dog was put into a ‘final sleep’ at the local vets.

The Russian playwright Anton Chekhov is alleged to have said, “Any idiot can face a crisis — it’s this day-to-day living that wears you out”. We can all recognise this. You see mostly people can endure major traumas and heartaches with great resilience. They may have a rough time in the process, but invariably they end up in a stronger position.

What do you value in your life? You won’t need reminding that you only have one shot at it. Miss it and it’s gone for good. In 2012, an Australian nurse, Bronnie Ware, working in palliative care, wrote a moving book called “The Top Five Regrets of the Dying”. She found five repeating themes when people near the end of life talked about their life regrets.

When did you last discuss something with someone and came to the conclusion that they were right and that you were wrong? For many of us the answer to this question will be, “Not for a while”. We all want to be seen as open-minded, but in reality, humans struggle to change an opinion once they have mentally signed up for it.

Are you procrastinating your life away? Are you forever putting things off until tomorrow? If you are, then you won’t be surprised to hear that you are probably underachieving in your life. However, the research also tells us that if you chronically procrastinate you are more likely to experience stress and other health problems. How does that work?

I was ten minutes late for a dental appointment last week. It had been a fraught journey. I explained to the dentist that I had been stuck at a level crossing, held up behind a learner driver and then couldn’t find a parking space. This was all actually true, although, if I’m honest, I was also slightly over-egging it. To give reasons for our actions is very normal.

Our thoughts are not to be trusted. This may sound a little extreme, but learning this fact can be tremendously helpful. The normal human brain provides a relentless ongoing commentary about the world and what we are doing. Sometimes the stories in this commentary are factual. But more often than not, they consist of judgements, evaluations, predictions and protests.

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Blog Author - Kevin Simpson

Kevin is a Clinical Psychologist and Partner with Outlook South West. His short weekly articles cover a range of topics related to psychology and general wellbeing. They also appear in the Cornish Guardian and West Briton each week.